


things I might say yes to

by nobody_nowhere



Series: maybe you'll stay with me [2]
Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: F/F, also some initial angst but we get past that without too much heartbreak, and it is wonderful and gentle and sweet, look they just love and appreciate each other so much, the evil girlfriends reunion we all deserved, there is soft surprise kissing and hand-holding and mutual appreciation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 20:35:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11387907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nobody_nowhere/pseuds/nobody_nowhere
Summary: Because sometimes you just have to harden your heart and do what it takes to survive - and sometimes, you have a wonderful, supportive, amazing friend you're half in love with who can recognise and accept that, and then welcome you back into her heart like nothing ever changed from when you had to leave each other (not by choice) and go your separate ways for a time.AKA the Dana/Emma reunion that we deserved but never actually got, because these evil supportive girlfriends rule my heart





	things I might say yes to

**Author's Note:**

> hey remember the Raw after Wrestlemania when Emma returned and we all thought we'd get to see the return of Team Disingenuous? remember how that didn't actually happen and we were all heartbroken? well, here in this little bit of fiction, I have remedied that error and written the reunion we all deserved, because I live an evil supportive girlfriends appreciation life and you should too (just kidding; don't let me tell you how to live your life).
> 
> also this took me way too long to write, so if anything feels terribly disjointed (like, the last half of Dana's POV) then that's probably why (because that bit was written about two-three months after the rest of the story)

It happens accidentally, as these things mostly do. Emma injures her back – very nearly breaks it, in all honesty – and, well. Well, it all but breaks her heart.

For the first time in years, the company had shown some faith in her and in her work. She’d been brought back up from NXT, in the wake of Dana’s main-roster debut, and they were seemingly set to wreak all sorts of havoc, well away from the awful Asuka and everyone who seemed to think the Japanese woman could do no wrong.

Emma knew better, because she’d seen down deep into the heart of the vicious beast that lurked under Asuka’s skin; like recognising her own mirror image, yet Asuka was worse than she ever could be, and it was both galling and terrifying to admit that, even in the privacy of her own head. Others may not have seen it yet, but Emma knew, Dana was starting to realise, and – of all people – _Bayley_ probably had a sneaking suspicion too, somewhere underneath that ridiculously happy-go-lucky, can-do attitude.

Away from Asuka, away from Bayley, away from William Regal and Sara Amato and everyone else who shook their heads whenever they saw her or Dana, trying to pretend like they didn’t have far worse deeds lurking in their distant and not-so-distant pasts. It had seemed so wonderful; almost too wonderful to be true.

And so it was. Emma had been injured, Dana had been left alone to try and navigate the contrary currents of her abrupt main-roster call-up, and Team Disingenuous had quietly faded into the ether. Emma had focused on her recovery, Dana had been pulled into Charlotte’s orbit, and life moved on.

Life moves on. Emma recuperates to the point of returning to training, and then an in-ring return. And then some bright spark comes up with the idea of ‘Emmalina’.

It’s a stupid idea, and Emma tells them so, but having been injured so soon after her return to the main roster, she doesn’t have a lot of traction with the important people who make the decisions about these things, and soon she’s posing in all sorts of ridiculous outfits, trying to pretend to be some sort of glamorous socialite or – whatever, she’s not even really sure what ‘Emmalina’ is meant to be. She tries, but it’s nothing she’s ever been or ever will be. Even the clumsy, absent-minded airhead she’d posed as early in her career was more true to herself than…whatever this is.

It’s no use telling anyone, though. They don’t want to hear it, and she doesn’t have enough pull to make herself heard. Project Emmalina is greenlit, and after weeks of interchangeable videos to promote her supposed transformation, ‘Emmalina’ makes her debut. Emma walks out to music that is not hers, goes through motions like an automaton, and when the moment comes – when the crowd is eagerly waiting for the hook to draw them in and give them a reason to commit – she stops.

‘ _No_ ,’ she thinks to herself. _‘Not this time. Not today._ ’

“For seventeen weeks, you have waited,” she says insincerely, reciting the words she has rehearsed, with her most disingenuous smile pasted onto her face, “for the makeover of Emma to ‘Emmalina’. Well, here I am!”

The crowd murmurs, and the commentators chatter amongst themselves. It means nothing. It is nothing, like what they have asked her to try to do and to be. Nothing, and less than nothing; useless, worthless, meaningless. She is so much more than this, and she has not worked so hard to return just to suffer through several more years of pretending to be something that she is not.

One way or another, it ends here.

“And now you will see the makeover of ‘Emmalina’ to _Emma_. Thank you.”

The buzz of confusion and swelling irritation follows her as she returns backstage, having given them nothing more than a few lines of dialogue to cheesy, unfamiliar music in a glittery gold dress. Emma keeps a carefully blank face until she is away from cameras, after which she can no longer hold back the familiar smirk. Producers and people from talent relations try to accost her, but she shrugs them all off, until she’s stopped in her tracks by the one person she doesn’t dare brush off.

Triple H.

“That didn’t go according to plan,” he says neutrally.

“No,” she agrees, lifting her chin. “It didn’t.”

“I did try to tell them you wouldn’t be pushed into something you weren’t, but Vince was set on the whole ‘Emmalina’ thing,” he says, before suddenly matching her, smirk for smirk. “Well, maybe this time around he’ll be more willing to listen. Don’t worry about it, _Emma_ – next time you’re out there under those lights, I’ll make sure you’re free to do your own thing, as you should be.”

He’s gone before she can manage much more than a nod of acknowledgement, no doubt busy with a hundred other minor dramas and disasters that tend to crop up during any sort of live broadcast, but Emma doesn’t care. She’s got the backing of the boss, now, and nothing’s going to keep her from reaching the top now, she’s sure.

She grins to herself, practicing her best disdainful smirk. If ‘Evil’ Emma is back, then she needs to be sure that she’s ready to reclaim her place as the most ruthless woman on the Raw roster. After all, who is there to stop her? Charlotte? Sasha Banks? _Bayley_?

Nia Jax is probably one to steer clear of, as best she can, but the female Raw roster is already quite thin. After those four, who else is there? Alicia’s too busy being the centre of attention on 205 Live, which just leaves –

…Dana.

\--

It’s the Raw after Wrestlemania, and the atmosphere is electric. The crowd is wild, and possibly slightly mis-wired – or so the commentators keep insisting, anyway – and Dana is wrestling a six-woman tag with Sasha and Bayley tonight, against Charlotte, Nia, and…someone else, she’s not sure who. Nobody’s been very forthcoming, and all she can do is hope against hope that they’re not willing to pull Asuka up from NXT when she’s still carrying championship gold, because she can’t think of anyone she would want to wrestle less.

Dana enters for the match to more applause than she had expected, but apparently everybody loves seeing Charlotte getting even just a little measure of come-uppance. Flair might be one of the most naturally talented wrestlers to ever compete in the WWE, but Dana still wonders how Charlotte expects to make it without even a single friend – no matter how good-going-upon-great she might be, she’s still only one woman.

Meanwhile, Bayley is the sort of person who makes friends everywhere she goes; Sasha’s practical enough to take allies where she can find them, and just sentimental enough to make friends, if said friends are persistent enough to push through her shell of self-sufficiency. Dana’s not really sure that Nia Jax is an individual so much as she is an army in the form of one woman, but even Nia had her alliance with Eva Marie, back in NXT, and to her credit, she did seem to truly care about Eva.

Then there had been Dana herself, in alliance with Emma. The commentators had taken to calling them Team Disingenuous, and together, they’d been unstoppable, or near enough to it. It was a tragedy that Emma had been injured, because Dana’s sure that she’s never had such a steadfast friend – anyone who would stick with someone against the wrath of Asuka was a friend for life, as far as she’s concerned.

The crowd cheers as Sasha enters, and Dana waits in the corner, trying not to look as nervous as she feels. Bayley has been as welcoming as only she can, and Sasha aloof but not antagonistic, but she can’t help remembering that it wasn’t so very long ago that she would have been standing across the ring from them, looking to beat them into bloody pulps just to gain even the smallest measure of Charlotte’s approval.

It’s almost enough to make her sick. Dana can only hope that, wherever she is, Emma hasn’t been watching much of Raw over the last few months, because it would have certainly made her friend sick, too. She can only hope that when Emma is finally ready to return – because that farce a month or so ago was obviously just that; a farce – that she will remember Dana, and Team Disingenuous, and just how good they were together.

When the music of their first opponent sounds, Dana almost can’t believe it. The familiar tune wails through the arena, and the very object so recently occupying her thoughts appears, clambering onto the announce desk to perform her usual – her _proper_ – entrance routine, with the fists and the spiky shoulder pads and the aviator glasses and half-gloves, and it takes everything she has for Dana to try and pretend that she doesn’t want to rush up the entrance ramp and hug Emma on her miraculous (real) return to Raw.

“Did you know Emma was coming back?” Dana asks Sasha, trying for a casual tone to cover her discomfort. Sasha shrugs, shakes her head minutely, and returns to watching Emma saunter down the ramp, seeming completely unconcerned by their surprise opponent. To Dana’s right, Bayley looks vaguely nervous – but she always looks like that before a match, really, and even more so if she knows that Charlotte or Nia is going to be involved.

The entrances of Charlotte and Nia pass in a blur. Dana keeps close to her partners for the match; though she is not quite inside their confidence, defying Charlotte as she did so recently seems to have earned her some small measure of trust.

In all honesty, however, it isn’t Charlotte that she is worried about.

Emma is – glorious, truly; she always is. Charlotte is both glamorous and athletic, while Nia is perhaps the most intimidating woman Dana has ever had the misfortune to meet, bar maybe Asuka – but there are different kinds of dangerous, as she has learned only too well.

Bayley is sweet and sincere, and Sasha is fierce and fabulous, and both are absolutely indomitable.

For her own part, Dana is apparently the least important participant in this six-woman tag team match. In the end, Sasha manages to make Charlotte tap, and while Dana’s happy for the win, she also wishes she had more time inside the ropes. But it is what it is, and it does feel good to see Charlotte on the losing side for once, knowing that she’ll have to suffer the knowledge that her supposedly useless sidekick has just notched up a win against her.

It’s even better to watch as Charlotte, in her absolute arrogance, picks a fight with Nia Jax, and ends up levelled on the mat for her trouble. Even _Dana_ could have told her that was a bad idea, and she has previously picked a fight with Asuka, who is perhaps the only other woman in the entirety of the WWE to rival Nia for sheer menace.

Fortunately, Emma is smart enough to slink off as quickly as she can, having hastily escaped the ring to avoid Nia’s wrath. With Sasha and Bayley all wrapped up in one another, Dana is free to follow, and so, follow she does.

It’s always been Emma, and it always will be. The knowledge is a comfort, warming her as she follows the other woman towards the locker rooms. Emma makes no sign of having seen her until she stops suddenly outside the general-use women’s change room, one arm held across the doorway, and she turns to stare back over one shoulder.

Even without the shoulder-pads and the shades, the entire effect is still intimidating. Exhilarating, too, reminding Dana of better times, when Team Disingenuous had all but run the NXT women’s division, and nobody had dared to mock them – bar perhaps Asuka, but she is out of sight and therefore out of mind, as far as Dana is concerned.

“So,” Emma says. “You came. I wasn’t sure you would. You were just so very _cosy_ with your partners, just now.”

“I don’t care about Sasha or Bayley,” Dana says, staring anxiously at the other woman. She’s gorgeous, and glorious, and talented beyond all measure, and all Dana has been doing since Emma’s injury is filling time until her friend can return, because she will never be at her best if Emma isn’t there to back her up. “I made a mistake with Charlotte, yes, but I was only filling in time. It’s _you_ , Emma – it always has been.”

“Of course it is, silly,” Emma says, and it’s just so – _her_ , and Dana has to grin, because otherwise she’ll cry, and that would do nobody any good at all. “You didn’t know I was returning, did you?”

“I never would have agreed to stand across the ring from you if I did,” Dana says solemnly. “We knew there was some mystery competitor, sure, but I thought it would be Asuka if it was anyone. You didn’t tell me you were coming back.”

Emma has the grace to look slightly ashamed. “I wasn’t allowed to. Don’t ruin the surprise, and all that. If I’d known I was meant to be facing you, though, I would have. I mean it.”

“I know you do,” Dana says, grinning.

She can hear the approach of some of the others – the lighter tread makes her think it is Bayley and Sasha, but it’s not like it matters. Nothing else matters, now, not like the glowing golden warmth that is the knowledge that Emma is back.

“I missed you,” she admits, and it’s quiet, vulnerable – more vulnerable than she has ever dared to be before. But she finally has Emma – _her_ Emma – back, and if she’s learned anything during the long absence, it’s that if there’s only one person she would ever want to be honest with, then it’s this dangerous, gorgeous, wonderful, utterly amazing woman standing just opposite her in a quiet corridor, and –

-And suddenly there are lips on hers, gentler than she might have expected, had she ever dared hope for something like this, and more right than anything else in her life has ever been or felt or seemed. Not for the first time (although this is definitely the best time), it feels like the only other thing that exists in the world which might possibly matter apart from Dana herself is Emma, and it’s perfect.

It’s just – perfect.

“Missed you, too,” Emma says, and she’s adorably breathless, purple lipstick just slightly smeared from the sharp lines of earlier. “Wow, I didn’t even realise but – I _really_ missed you, babe.”

“Yeah,” Dana says, “yeah, same.”

It’s completely inadequate, but somehow still perfect, especially when Emma just laughs, and pulls her away from the locker room as Sasha and Bayley finally turn the corner, heads bent together in a way that makes Dana ache with remembrance, because gosh, wasn’t that just how she and Emma used to be? Or maybe it’s just how they are, and how they’ve always been; so clearly meant to be together, even if they didn’t know it for the longest time –

“C’mon,” Emma says conspiratorially, leaning in as the other two women brush past them with barely more than a glance – Bayley looks like she might want to say something, but Sasha stalks past and Bayley is clearly helpless to do anything other than follow. “Let’s get out of here, yeah? Go do – I dunno, something fun. Catch up, have a meal, make fun of Charlotte – sound good?”

“Sounds good,” Dana agrees, and something in her tone must betray how full her heart feels, because Emma just gives her a _look_ , and it looks like everything she feels but can’t say, and it’s just – wonderful, and amazing, and so incredible that it’s all so easy, like they never missed any time at all. “We’ve gotta remind these little girls that playtime is over, right?”

“Exactly,” Emma agrees, and it’s – everything. Tonight has been _everything_ , and tomorrow can only be better – because they’re walking towards it, hand-in-hand, and Dana can’t see how things could possibly be better than this. Well, except for the day when one of them is hoisting the Women’s Championship above their heads – and that’s something to work towards, definitely.

But for now, she’s happy just to be here with Emma once more; together again, for better and through worse.

Team Disingenuous, reunited at last.


End file.
